<p>The concept of unified communications (UC) voice, video, chat, email and collaboration all delivered over a single IP connection has been hyped for more than a decade, but takeup rates remain low. Will shifting those services into the cloud make them more appealing to businesses?</p><p>Globe picture from Shutterstock</p><p>No-one is arguing that UC isn't potentially useful if you actually implement it. However, the gap between the theoretical benefits and companies actually taking the plunge has always been very broad. New NEC-sponsored research from Telsyte suggests that while companies are warming to the concept, uptake is still relatively low.</p><p>"Unified communications has been touted as the best thing since sliced bread, but penetration of cloud UC is still only around 10 per cent," Telsyte analyst Rodney Gedda said. However, that figure is likely to rise; by 2017, Telsyte is projecting that 20 per cent of Australian businesses will use the cloud for enterprise communications, and a further 13 per cent will use a combination of both on-premises and cloud models.</p><p><a href="http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/10/does-the-cloud-mean-business-will-finally-want-to-use-unified-communications/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.cmo.com.au/mediareleases/17575/nec-cloud-collaboration-to-accelerate-hybrid/">NEC Cloud Collaboration to accelerate hybrid unified communications take-up ...</a> (CMO)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dSwevWmsyQlnNtMyyAtPxCzT9658M&ned=us">2 additional articles.</a></p>